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Breastfeeding mom wants apology from daycare that asked her to leave infant room

Sheri Hebdon says the demand to nurse in a more private area left her feeling “humiliated.”

Sheri Hebdon, at home with son Nate, 3 1/2, and twins Maya and Zev, both 11 1/2 months old, felt mortified when she was asked not to breastfeed her twins in the infant room at a city-run daycare. (VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Niamh ScallanStaff Reporter

Fri., Nov. 16, 2012

It’s an unlikely place to face backlash over public breastfeeding, but a Toronto mother says she was repeatedly ordered at a city-run daycare to nurse her children in a more private room after a male employee allegedly became uncomfortable.

Sheri Hebdon, 36, a lawyer on maternity leave, said she was breastfeeding her 11-month-old twins, Zev and Maya, in the Woodbine Child Care Centre’s infant room last Tuesday when she was interrupted by a staff member and told to take her breastfeeding elsewhere because “this is where children play.”

“I’ve never felt that degraded and humiliated in my life,” said Hebdon, who has since demanded a written apology from the east-end facility and asked that staff receive breastfeeding education and conflict resolution training.

The centre’s supervisor, Diane Dowsling, said she could not comment on the matter when reached by phone Thursday. But Elaine Baxter-Trahair, general manager of Toronto Children's Services, said the city encourages breastfeeding and called the incident a “misunderstanding.”

“(The staff’s) concern really was for her comfort and so that other parents wouldn’t bump into her picking up their children,” she said. “We are sorry if that was misunderstood.”

Hebdon, however, said no parents entered the room to pick up their children while she was breastfeeding. Instead, she said, only a few staff members and children were in the room when she arrived and decided to breastfeed her infants on a floor mat, something she often does before heading home.

About 10 minutes after she took a seat to begin feeding, Hebdon said a female staff member entered the infant room and told her to move to the “sleep room,” a room filled with cribs and a rocking chair.

One child still nursing and the other sitting at her side, Hebdon said she told the woman she could not move and was comfortable on the floor. But the staff member insisted, she said.

Having seen other mothers breastfeed in the infant room and having nursed her own children there before, Hebdon said she was confused and questioned why she was being asked to leave the area. Eventually, she said, the woman told her “this is where the children play” and “it’s not for nursing.”

“I felt ashamed, I wanted to cry ... as if I had done something wrong,” said Hebdon, who finished feeding her children, picked up 3-year-old son Nathaniel (who also attends the daycare) and promptly “got the hell out of there.”

That evening, Hebdon’s partner Katarina spoke with Dowsling over the phone about the incident. According to Hebdon, Dowsling said a male food service worker who had briefly entered the room became uncomfortable when he saw her breastfeeding — and another staff member took action.

Baxter-Trahair, on the other hand, said she heard that Hebdon complained about being uncomfortable with the male employee in the room. Hebdon has denied that was the case.

Dowsling also allegedly told Katarina over the phone that families with different cultural backgrounds who attended the daycare had different comfort levels when it came to breastfeeding.

According to the Ontario Human Rights Code, “nursing mothers have the right to breastfeed a child in a public area” without being disturbed or asked to move to a more “discreet” area. Hebdon said she was appalled at her experience inside a city-run daycare facility.

“It was really quite stunning and totally caught me off-guard,” she said. “I was literally getting in trouble for breastfeeding.”

The day after the incident, Hebdon said she was told by daycare staff that she would no longer be troubled while breastfeeding and to “go back to do what you were doing before.”

Still, she said, she hoped that the staff would turn the incident “into a learning opportunity.” Though she has no plans to file a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, she said she wanted to ensure that no other mother faced the same problem.

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